[Alex Murphy]

Statistics published by the German episcopate tell it all: in 2010 over 180,000 Germans left the Church while only 170,000 were baptised. Also, the number of vocations has been dwindling: in 2009, 120 candidates entered the seminary; a year later there were just 79 of them. Similar trends are observed in countries like Spain or Ireland, once considered Europe’s Catholic vanguard.

Ping for later
The Incredible Shrinking Catholic Church [Kenneth C. Jones, 2003]
The Incredible Shrinking Catholic Church [Paul Gorell, 2009]

[Stingray51]

over 180,000 Germans left the Church while only 170,000 were baptised

How out of whack are the 170,000 Catholic baptisms with the birth rate of ethnic Germans? I read that there are only about 600,000 new Germans born every year. The German birth rate is among the lowest in the world and the Christian component of that is lower still. So of 600,000 German births, an increasing number are Muslims. And Christianity in Germany is split about 50/50 between Protestants and Catholics. My point is that I am not sure that 170,000 is a startlingly low number as the article implies.